SEBS Students Awarded at Aresty Undergraduate Research Symposium

Posing at SEBS 2015 Convocation, biotech major Dan Hollerbach with Prof. Lily Young. Hollerbach received a “Best Poster” award in the STEM category at the Aresty Undergraduate Research Symposium.

Each spring, the Aresty Research Center evaluates poster presentations at its university-wide Undergraduate Research Symposium. A celebration of scholarship and creative activity, the symposium is a chance for undergraduates to present a paper or poster on their findings to an audience of faculty, peers, and corporate and community partners. For 2015, the symposium was held on April 24 in the Livingston Student Center. The top posters were chosen from four broad categories: Humanities, Social Sciences, Digital, and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Five SEBS faculty sponsored award winning projects at the Aresty symposium, with six student projects awarded. Two of Professor Lily Young’s undergraduate research students were recognized.

“It was very exciting that both students in our lab were winners. They are both outstanding honors students and very deserving, and we should celebrate their achievements!” said Young. Graduating senior Dan Hollerbach, a biotech student, received a “Best Poster” award in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) category for his poster “Genetic Characterization of bamA’s Involvement in the Anaerobic Pathway for the Degradation of Natural Aromatics” under his co-advisors Professors Abigail Porter and Lily Young, Department of Environmental Sciences. Out of more than 500 poster presentations, Hollerbach received one of the three awarded in the STEM field and will receive an award of $250.

Katherine Fullerton with her award winning poster.

Junior Katherine Fullerton, also a biotech student, received a STEM Honorable Mention for her poster “Determination of the Presence of the Anaerobic Benzoyl-CoA Degradation Pathway in Animal Samples”. Her advisor Lily Young reports that Fullerton also received a very competitive Summer Research Award from the American Society for Microbiology (ASM). She will receive $4000 stipend for 10 weeks of summer research in Young’s lab and $500 travel award to attend and report on her research next year at the ASM General Meeting. This was a national competition that she was successful in winning.

The other winning SEBS students or with SEBS faculty advisors are:

Caroline Davis with her advisor George Carman, received an Honorable Mention at the Aresty Symposium.